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Definition: Californium |
CaliforniumNoun1. A radioactive transuranic element; discovered by bombarding curium with alpha particles. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definitions |
Health | A man-made radioactive actinide with atomic symbol Cf, atomic number 98, and atomic weight 251. Its valence can be +2 or +3. Californium has medical use as a radiation source for radiotherapy. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Californium is the sixth transuranium element in the periodic table to be discovered. It has the symbol Cf and atom number 98. It was named after the state of California and University of California, Berkeley.
The discovery of californium was announced on March 17, 1950 by UC Berkeley researchers Thompson, Street, Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn T. Seaborg. It was created by bombarding microgram quantities of 242Cm with 35 MeV helium ions in the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory's 60-inch cyclotron.
Californium (III) is the only ion stable in aqueous solutions, all attempts to reduce or oxidize californium (III) having failed. The isotope 249Cf results from the beta decay of 249Bk while the heavier isotopes are produced by intense neutron irradiation by the reactions. The existence of the isotopes 249Cf, 250Cf, 251Cf, and 252Cf makes it feasible to isolate californium in weighable amounts so that its properties can be investigated with macroscopic quantities.
The isotope Californium-252, a very strong neutron emitter, is known for being extremely radioactive, with some specialist applications. One microgram releases 170 million neutrons per minute, which presents biological hazards. Proper safeguards should be used in handling californium.
Reduction of californium to its metallic state has not yet been accomplished. Because californium is a very efficient source of neutrons, many new uses are expected for it. It has already found use in neutron moisture gauges and in well-logging (the determination of water and oil-bearing layers). It is also being used as a portable neutron source for discovery of metals such as gold or silver by on-the-spot activation analysis. 252-Cf is now being offered for sale by the O.R.N.L. at a cost of $10/mg. As of May, 1975, more than 63 mg have been produced and sold. It has been suggested that californium may be produced in certain stellar explosions, called supernovae, for the radioactive decay of 254Cf (55-day half-life) agrees with the characteristics of the light curves of such explosions observed through telescopes. This suggestion, however, is questioned.
Reference
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Californium."
Synonym: CaliforniumSynonym: atomic number 98 (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Californium |
| English words defined with "californium": atomic number 103 ♦ lawrencium, Lw. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Californium" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Portuguese (californium). |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
californium | 16 |
252 californium | 4 |
californium element | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "californium"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Danish | californium. (various references) | |
Dutch | californium. (various references) | |
French | californium. (various references) | |
German | Californium. (various references) | |
Italian | californio. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | カリブ海 (calypso, Caribbean Sea, carillon). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | カリホルニウ . (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aliforniumcay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | californium, califórnio. (various references) | |
Russian | калифорний. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | veštački (artificial, bogus, factitious, false, man-made, unnatural), radio-aktivni elemenat, kalifornijum. (various references) | |
Spanish | californio. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "californium": californiums. (additional references) | |
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"Californium" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: calfornian, calfornicum, californicum, californicus. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-f-i-i-l-m-n-o-r-u" | |
-2 letters: formulaic, fumarolic. | |
-3 letters: aluminic, columnar, coumarin, criminal, cuniform, formalin, fornical, francium, fulminic, informal, ironical, morainic, unciform, unifilar. | |
-4 letters: aciform, airfoil, aliform, amorini, clamour, clarion, confirm, cornual, courlan, cranium, cumarin, finical, fluoric, fluorin, folacin, formula, fumaric, inocula, limacon, minicar, minorca, moanful, omnific, ruminal, uniform, unmoral. | |
-5 letters: aimful, alnico, alumin, alumni, aminic, anomic, anuric, armful, camion, canful, carful, carlin, caroli, cilium, clamor, column, conium, corium, cornua, crinum, curial, falcon, famuli, filmic, finial, firman, flacon, florin, foliar, folium, formal, formic, frolic, fulcra, fulmar, infirm, inform, ionium, ironic, limina, limnic, lorica, lumina, macron, manful, manioc, marlin, micron, moirai, morula, moulin, muonic, normal, ocular, oilcan, oilman, rumina, uncial, uncoil, unfair, unific, uracil, uranic, urinal. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-f-i-i-l-m-n-o-r-u" | |
+1 letter: californiums. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)43 61 6C 69 66 6F 72 6E 69 75 6D |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.-. .- .-.. .. ..-. --- .-. -. .. ..- -- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000011 01100001 01101100 01101001 01100110 01101111 01110010 01101110 01101001 01110101 01101101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)C a l i f o r n i u m |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0043 0061 006C 0069 0066 006F 0072 006E 0069 0075 006D |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3767787572818480758779 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Expressions: Internet | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Derivations 7. Anagrams 8. Orthography | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
